At last the words I have been waiting for –
off university for two whole weeks! Two friends from Ireland came to visit Belgium, for one week, which was nice to see some familiar faces again. I made it my duty to take them to explore Belgium’s culture, famous cities and landmarks, as I have already seen most of these I had more
knowledge and experience which came in handy. We explored Bruges, Hasselt, Brussels, Antwerp, Leuven and Liege. Einstein, A (1941), 'The only source of knowledge is experience.' When I came to study abroad I knew it would expand my knowledge and experience for the better, which is why I am ensuring I make the most of this opportunity.
Cara, Leanne and I at The Belfort Castle from the movie 'In Bruges'.
Bruges.
Cara and I at the Bruges Canals.
Bruges has the nicest Belgium chocolate so of course this was our first adventure to taste this! We explored the beautiful scenery of Bruges, went on a canal cruise, dined in an Irish Pub and of course squeezed in a little shopping. In January we all watched the movie 'In Bruges' together so it was nice to actually visit where the movie was shot.
Hasselt is a small city where I am living and there is not a lot of things to do but we still explored and found things to do. We visited the Japanese Gardens, Jenever Museum and of course the Irish Pub.
Tasting the delightful Jenever shots!
Japanese Gardens Hasselt.
Japanese Gardens Hasselt.
Last year one of my friends had done Erasmus in Leuven which regrettably I did not get to visit, therefore I made sure I would visit it when I came to Belgium. We had heard a lot about the city of Leuven from many people and it definitely lived up to the expectations. It reminded us of Belfast, busy and full of students, which was right up our street!
This
week involved the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day which was an eventful
weekend to say the least. As the saying goes, ‘There are only two kinds of
people in the world, The Irish and those who wish they were.’ This was definitely
the case in Belgium this weekend! Out of 80 students from all different
nationalities, we were the only Irish, but that didn’t stop everyone painting their
faces and joining in on the celebrations. Dressed in our green Adam, Stewart and
I attended a party in Venlo, Holland on Saturday night with the Rugby team
which was an experience – they had dyed the beer green! Then also we celebrated
with our Erasmus students in Belgium on Sunday night even though we had an exam
the day after St. Patrick’s Day at 8.30am.
Claudia, Holly and I.
Me and the Spanish Girls.
Celebrating with the Greek, Spanish, Turkish, German and Malaysian.
-->
Thankfully
following our exam the rest of this week we can take it easy. We were finishing up some of our modules for university, which was sad as our ‘Technieks’ module was coming to an end. We followed
this module for 6 weeks where we manufactured practical and theoretical pieces
of work. Within this module the students are given a broad range of topics to
do for their project, such as: sewing, home-economics, ICT, recycling and
biochemistry.
Adam,
Stewart and I worked in a group together where we chose to do a renewable
materials project on the corporation ‘Apple’. This was a very different project
than we do in Stranmillis which we thoroughly enjoyed. We researched iPod
docking systems and explored the innovative ways of manufacturing speakers
using recycled materials. For our practical piece we manufactured a steady hand
game using old materials we had found: off
cuttings of wood, yogurt pots, a newspaper (The Irish Sun) and old insulated copper
wire.
Our Materials we used.
Our Steady Hand Game made from recyled materials.
-->
This
assignment is economically friendly which can be used within schools for the
pupils to make. CNW Group Ltd (2009), "Recycling one aluminium can saves
enough energy to run your TV for three hours."
If
recycling is highlighted as part of the schools ethos it would help students
develop a more positive and responsible behaviour pattern towards the environment,
which is vital in our every growing society. Our project would do exactly this
which our lecturer Ann noticed, she was very enthusiastic and took a
copy our work to teach to other students.
The
rest of the week for us was free of classes so we have a chance to work on our
individual assignments for our modules and prepare for our school based work.
While
preparing for my school placement personally it shocked me at how the Belgium
education system does not have a particular curriculum for every school to
follow and this is decided by the school and the individual teachers. Being given
a broad topic in Belgium and told to teach the pupils about this it is so much
different to teaching in a school in Northern Ireland. As teachers in Northern
Ireland, all schools follow a National Curriculum meaning that everyone is singing from the one song sheet.
Department
for Education (2011), ‘Education both influences and reflects the values of our
society, and the kind of society we want to be. It is therefore important to
recognise a set of common aims, values and purposes that underpin the
curriculum and the work of schools.’
The
Department for Education highlight here that pupils’ have to be taught
particular values, aims and acts of society which can be portrayed in a set
curriculum taught to all. Personally I favour our structured education as it
ensures all pupils’ are being taught the same topics regardless of what the
individual teacher or school favours. This results in our pupils’ having a broad
and balanced education experience.
·Department for Education (2011). Aims, Values
and Purposes. Available at www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/b00199676/aims-values-and-purposes (Accessed 21st March).
The beginning of week six for
us was spent preparing our short lessons to be taught within a ‘Steinerschool’,
which caters for pupils from the age of 5 years old until the age of 16 years old. The schools
vision is ‘Create judge, think and act.’ We were told there is a big emphasis
on art which they believe in learning through art, which attracts many aspiring
young artists to attend this school.
As we were informed of this
we wanted to incorporate art in our 15 minute lessons about our country. So we
decided to have information cards, including many pictures, on the table of
Irish culture, Belgium culture, History of Ireland and History of Belgium. We
discussed through each card and got the pupils to decorate a page each and in
the end they were put together to make a large poster featuring a shamrock in
the middle. We had 5-8 pupils for every 15 minute lesson and 8 groups all
together, the lessons were a great insight professionally to see the individuals’
views on the topics in which we were learning about. One little boy, Peter, was
really interested in Ireland and when asked to draw on his page he knew a lot
of Irish symbols and when quizzed about it he then told us his father was
actually Irish and from Cork, he developed by saying he has been to Ireland
more than 10 times and many other countries even though he is only 8 years old.
During a discussion on
Ireland with the Principle of the ‘Steinerschool’, I was inquiring the
differences between this school and schooling in Northern Ireland from a
professional view. There were a lot of interesting differences such as the
pupils’ start school at the age of 5 years old and stay with the same class group
in same classroom. The pupils are taught in 8 week blocks meaning they will be
taught a topic for the whole 8 weeks, be assessed with an exam, then not have
to cover that topic again.
Professionally for me I was
shocked at this and questioned the reasons and the principal’s thoughts. She
developed saying that both the teachers and the pupils’ appreciate this way in
teaching as they think it is easier, which personally I think is good that they
are happy and that they are achieving good grades every 8 weeks. Although I cannot
help thinking about the children being prepared for further education, if they
are taught like this from the age of 5 years old surely they will not be
prepared for GCSE or A level exams where it is necessary to revise many topics
for many different topics at the same time. For this point solely I would be
against this type of teaching within Northern Ireland.
As CCEA (2007), explains it
is important for pupils to have, “an awareness of themselves and their place in
the world, as well as of other places, cultures and the environment”, so I
think our lessons tied in well with this aspect from the Northern Ireland
curriculum and professionally it was clear it worked with the pupils and that
they thoroughly enjoyed it.
Adam, Stewart and I with one of the groups of pupils.
Group 3 holding up their poster they made.
Group 8, including Peter in the shamrock hat, showing their lovely art work.
Also this week we were able
to visit a Jewish school which personally and professionally I have benefited
greatly from. I was aware of the Jewish culture before this visit but did not
think it was as extreme. Firstly our passports where taken before we entered
and background checks where done on everyone individually, bags, phones and
cameras were taken off us and there was a strict dress
code which we were all warned about prior to the trip. Basically no flesh was
allowed to be seen; no skirts, no bare arms etc.
Wright
(1834, p.101) states “I am neither Jew nor
Gentile, Mahomedan nor Theist; I am but
a member of the human family.” Here Wright means that it does not matter
what religion anyone is we are all humans and have equal rights to each other.
During a talk on the Jewish
culture, Principal Rabbi Tomek explained they must obey 631 laws. A few being
they must pray at least 3 hours a day, boys and girls never see each other unless it is a brother or sister, they are not allowed to do work on Shabbat and have to rest on
the Shabbat. When explaining these points Rabbi Tomek informed us it is even
against the Law for any Jewish person to do anything at all on a Sunday – they
are not even allowed to turn on a light switch! Although these Jewish people do not know any different as they are born into this lifestyle - I am glad my religion is not as strict!
A typical Jewish Synagogue.
References
·CCEA (2007), The Northern Ireland Curriculum Primary, available
at www.nicurriculum.org.uk
(accessed 15/03/13).
·Wright, F. (1864) Life, Letters and Lectures, available at www.positiveatheism.org
(accessed 15/03/13).
‘No
culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive’, (M.Gandhi, 1931).
An
important factor of going on these trips and schools visits is becoming aware
of the different cultures and schooling types. The knowledge and understanding
will give us the insight into the different cultures in which we need, which
will become useful when teaching foreign pupils when we progress into the
teaching world. It will professionally and personally benefit us also as we
will feel more at ease, comfortable and understanding when teaching pupils whom
do not have English as their mother tongue.
During
an information day we attended there were a few guest speakers of different
primary schools explaining information on their school, the ways of teaching
and the pupils. One teacher, Mister Ben, stood out to me a lot. He was a male
teacher teaching in primary school and had a very interesting powerpoint, which
the health and safety officers in Ireland would hate to see.
It
clearly is a different culture from being at home as pupils as young as the age
of 6 years old were building projects using hammers, nails and small saws. One
little boy in particular loved hammering nails into pieces of wood, so Mister
Ben would let him do this, at certain parts of the day, in the corner while he
was explaining other tasks. As a class group, the pupils made a large
structural projects such as a wooden castle, the powerpoint developed into
showing pupils up ladders at ceiling height building by themselves! Although as
I come from a technology and design background I love the way the subject is
being incorporated into the primary schools here, especially for the boys as it
is vital I think especially at primary schools to get more of a ‘male emphasis’
on things but the extent of this is far too much in my opinion.
When quizzing
Mister Ben on the safety side of things regarding these projects he continued
in saying that the pupils are ‘mature’ and ‘aware of the dangers’ which I find
it hard to believe for most 16 year olds never mind 6 year olds. From having
the experience of little cousins the same ages as these pupils I can assure you
they are not mature enough to climb up a 10 foot ladder to hammer nails into
wood! At home we do not have any technology and design aspect in the primary
school environment which personally I hope your culture will change to include
this, within reason, for the pupils to get an insight into technology and
design before reaching secondary level.
After
visiting numerous primary schools on our Erasmus trip we were very excited to
eventually visit our first secondary school – even if we had to attend on a
Sunday while the rest of our class were sleeping! We visited the Maasmechelen
Secondary School which was one of the most enjoyable visited we have attended.
The school focussed upon ‘learning through technology for the world’ meaning
they were a specialist school of technology and design with extra vocational
subjects in which can be studied also such as welding, car mechanic, lorry
driving and many more. From the first viewing of the main building it looks
like your regular school having language classes, science classes, geography
etc. until we continue out the back of the school where there are large
workshops for technology and design with hundreds of machines.
A few of the many machines in the Maasmechelen School
A 13 year old pupil working with metal
Talking
to a few of the different pupils in the school we realised a lot were Turkish,
not having English as their mother tongue, which were attracted before 1980 to
the coalmines (75% of the pupils in the school are children of immigrants). Nadir,
a Turkish pupil, was using a £50,000 machine to manufacture his project which
was astonishing to watch. He made me a small token to keep featuring his
favourite Belgium football team, Genk.
The Genk football team souvenir Nadir manufactured
.jpg)
